Brother battle nothing new for Niedermayers

Brothers Rob (left) and Scott Niedermayer follow the puck for their respective teams during the 2003 Stanley Cup Final series between the Ducks and Devils.

Jim and John Harbaugh have it easier. They will stand on opposite sidelines, 531/3 yards apart, barking at players, assistants and officials. It's doubtful they will make eye contact. In four hours, it will all be over.

The more difficult brother battle took place almost 10 years ago, when Rob and Scott Niedermayer staged a bicoastal, seven-game, 14-day family "feud." Rob's Mighty Ducks lost to Scott's New Jersey Devils in the 2003 Stanley Cup Final, a series with a cute subplot that turned increasingly stressful off the ice.

"I think it was the hardest on my mom and dad, for sure," Rob Niedermayer said this week. "At the beginning of the series, I remember that my mom was pretty excited. She was doing a lot of interviews. By Game 7, I think she had had enough. It was wearing on her quite a bit."

In recent days, Jim Harbaugh, coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and his brother John, coach of the Baltimore Ravens, have downplayed the fraternal aspect of their teams' meeting in the Super Bowl.

The Niedermayers know the drill. They faced a flood of questions about being the first brothers to face each other in a Final since 1946. They said all the right things, claimed it wouldn't be a big deal, said they wouldn't really think about it. The Harbaughs are reading off the same script, but inside, it's different.

"I'd already won two Stanley Cups," Scott Niedermayer said, "and to be standing between my brother and his first Stanley Cup was not a position I really enjoyed being in. It was tough."

"He's your brother, but you want to win it so bad," Rob said. "It's something you dream of winning as a kid, and we both wanted it so bad."

There doesn't seem to be a public favorite between the two Harbaughs, no sentimental choice. John is only a year older and neither coach has won a Super Bowl or a college national championship.

That wasn't the case with the Niedermayers. Scott, a year older and one of the NHL's top defensemen, already had two Stanley Cup rings and an Olympic gold medal. Rob, a gritty third-line winger, lost in his only other trip to the Final, with Florida in 1996.

Even their mother, Carol, publicly said she wanted Rob to win, just to balance things a bit.

"That made sense to me," Scott said with a chuckle. "We'd been around for long enough that we understood what it meant to be competitors and professionals. We just tried to go out and do our jobs."

The tougher part came off the ice, where the Niedermayers — always helpful to reporters — answered daily questions. In order to avoid a prolonged media crush, the Harbaughs' parents, Jack and Jackie, held one midweek news conference, but the coaches have faced "How will it feel?" inquiries for two weeks.

"I'm sure (the Harbaughs) will be glad just to get the game started," Rob said, "so they don't have to answer any more questions."

San Francisco is the Super Bowl favorite, as New Jersey was in the 2003 Final. The Mighty Ducks fell into a 2-0 series hole, but tied the series, 2-2 and then 3-3. In Game 7, on June 9, 2003, Scott Niedermayer assisted on two second-period goals and the Devils won, 3-0.

"I was with a group of guys and I was excited," Scott said. "I mean, we won. We won the Stanley Cup. Then you peek back at the other side of the ice, and they're devastated. You do the handshake and you get your opportunity to deal with it for a moment. Then, after the game my parents were there, sort of going back and forth between the rooms. It was interesting. Pretty crazy."

"At the time, it was a pretty bitter taste," Rob said. "(Scott) was so good about it. He knew the sting was there and that it was a tough thing for me to deal with."

Rob attended Scott's Stanley Cup party that summer, but the brothers never really talked about the series until two years later, when Scott signed with the Mighty Ducks. That's when 2003 got cast in a softer light.

In 2007, Rob and Scott won the Stanley Cup together when the Ducks beat Ottawa. The most poignant postgame moment came when Scott, as team captain, handed the trophy over to Rob, an alternate captain.

"With how bitter it was, after I lost to Scott in the finals, it was just that much better when we won together," Rob said. "Not until we won together was I really able to look back on (2003) and say, 'Man, that was cool.'"

"We got lucky to be able to write more to the story, by winning together," Scott Niedermayer said. "If that never happened, it would have been tough."

Brothers Rob (left) and Scott Niedermayer follow the puck for their respective teams during the 2003 Stanley Cup Final series between the Ducks and Devils.
New Jersey's Scott Niedermayer, left, consoles brother Rob after the Ducks lost a Stanley Cup Final game in 2003.
The Ducks' Rob Niedermayer (44) keeps the puck from his brother Scott of the New Jersey Devils during the Stanley Cup Final in 2003.
Carol Niedermayer, right, the mom of NHL players Scott and Rob Niedermayer, can relate a little bit to what the parents of Super Bowl coaches John and Jim Harbaugh have gone through this week.
After squaring off against each other in 2003, brothers Rob (bottom left) and Scott Niedermayer got to celebrate with the Stanley Cup in 2007 along with goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere (top) after the Ducks won the final. MARK AVERY, AP

1 of

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.